As a fairly skilled Precision-Shooter, have you ever had this situation happen to you?
- You are usually the only player at the table that tips the dealers with any level of consistency.
- Many times there are one or more players at your table who are betting much larger than you are.
- When the dice come to you and your hand begins, you are the only one with either a line-bet for the dealers or any other dealer-bets for that matter.
- Your shooting starts to get into a nice winning groove. Your bets start to pay off, and the net-profit slowly racks up.
- You proceed to make two or three PL-Points in a row along with a crateful of Box-numbers.
- During your roll, you hit quite a few Hardways where you have straight up, piggybacked or “shared” bets for the boys. You use part of your Prop revenue to pump up the volume (press) whatever particular Hardways hit, while a portion of it goes into the dealers toke-box, and the balance goes into your rail-space.
- Other players are whooping it up as your hand progresses and the good times continue to roll. Everything is going great; everyone is making money; and the dealers are servicing the hell out of each player. They are pleasant, efficient, and they are keeping the game moving at a decent pace, as well as cheering on your fine efforts.
- At this point, your dealer-bets are still the only ones out there. You continue to divide your Hardway wins with the crew in the same Press/Share/Rack manner.
- One of the big fish (high-roller) players starts calling out a particular bet that he wants you to hit. He has money on it, and as your hand progresses, his enthusiasm increases while his patience wanes.
- He’ll say something like, “Come on Shooter, we need a Hard-Eight”. At first he may say it in an encouraging way, but by the time it flows out of his mouth for the umpteenth time, his persistent exhortations start to become downright irritating, if not somewhat hostile.
- As that player continues his loud “encouragement”, he also continues to work the dealers to death with his various and sundry betting moves.
Okay, now that I’ve explained the situation at the table, let me ask you this:
- How many times have you turned and said, “I’ll tell you what. Put the dealers up on that Hard-Eight for some decent money and I’ll try to hit it for you”?
- Have you ever thought of saying, “Well if you put me and the dealers up on the Hard-Eight for 5 or 10 bucks, I’ll see what I can do”?
The reason I ask you all of this, is because a friend of mine does that “toke hustle” nearly every time that he hears someone direct those multiple “hit my number” requests at him.
He explained to me that he hears those requests, and responds with those “make a bet for the dealers”, or “make a bet for me and the crew” replies when he is shooting especially well. Fortunately for him, he shoots VERY well MOST of the time.
- I never cease to be amazed at how often the “big player” will respond quite positively to his “bet-for-us” suggestion. Obviously this has the effect of returning incredible amounts of respect, admiration, gratitude and Precision-Shooting LATITUDE from the crew towards the shooter.
- Even if the “Come on shooter…” loudmouth doesn’t throw in some money on those suggested bets, the crew still shows their appreciation and latitude for the effort that “Buddy” puts forth on their behalf.
- Conversely, it also has the effect of usually shutting the “requesters” mouth, if he chooses not to make a bet on behalf of the dealers.
- In any event, this “bet-for-us” effort brings in a fairly steady income for the dealers, as well as the guy doing the actual Precision-Shooting.
Another situation where this applies is where this skillful thrower is tossing lots of Prop-number outcomes and most of the players are cashing-in on them. He’ll say semi-loudly to no one in particular, “The dealers are working their tails off, let’s all throw a buck each in for them on the Hardways”. He’ll then toss in a buck to “prime the pump”. Again, it is amazing at the resultant rainfall of chips that come in after such an invitation.
On the other hand, if his request fails to elicit a positive response (by way of any additional bets for the crew), he’ll sometimes look around the table; then with a disgusted shake of his head, he’ll LOUDLY call all his bets “off” (including his own dealer bets).
- Concurrently, he’ll pick up all of his PL-Odds, and say something to the nearest dealer to the effect of, “I guess these guys don’t want to win anymore. They don’t seem to appreciate what it is you guys do for them. Oh well, I’m glad my bets are “Off”.
- Then, almost as if on cue, he’ll set the dice and throw a 7-Out.
- Thereupon, as the dealers are clearing away the piles and piles of lost bets, this guy will call for all of his bets to be returned to him (which the dealers gladly do).
- If any of the players say anything to him about being an asshole, he’ll respond by saying that he gave them “fair warning and an ample opportunity to make a bet for the crew”, which they obviously didn’t heed. Then he’ll add, “…besides, the dice have a mind of their own, but I think they sense when the dealers aren’t being taken care of…kind of like karma.”
Now, here’s the question:
Does this type of behavior have any room at the craps table?
To my mind, I think it does. Although I’d have to temper that answer with a caveat, and that is, you can use humor to prompt a little action for the boys, and you can use a little “dig” to get the high-rolling cheapskates to toss in a little action to go along with their own Prop bets; but out and out hustling on your own behalf (by asking for 2-way action for you AND the dealers) may be a little bit beyond the line.
I’ll tell you this.
The dealers sure love to see him coming, and they sure get giddy if his shooting is up to par, because they know that their toke-rate usually increases dramatically when “Buddy” is in the house.
I can also tell you that he adds about $100 (from this method) to his own Precision-Shooting profits nearly every time he’s in the casino. I would roughly guesstimate that it brings in about three or four times as much in actual dealer-bet wins.
I’ve been encouraging dealer-bets for YEARS, and I’ve started to employ some of his “toke encouraging” remarks into my game. On the other hand, I never solicit a toke on my behalf. My sense of it, is that promoting tips for the dealers is a good thing, but hustling bets on your own behalf is a little bit whorish.
Good Luck & Good Skill at the Tables…and in Life.
Sincerely,
The Mad Professor
